Do your towel and swimsuit prep the night before. Leave a pool toy bag in the car. Simplify snacks. 90 min at the pool is plenty!

We moved out of the city and live near my mom whose backyard is basically like a resort in the summer. I still don’t spend more than 1-2 hours at her pool unless lots of family is there helping and making it more of a party atmosphere. I can’t imagine spending 4,5, 6 hours there on a daily basis. You’re doing fine, OP.

My mom is a pool person, could stay for hours. I have always hated it. As a child I would cry having to go. As an adult I am fine going for an hour or so, maybe longer if kids want to stay.
, a couple times a week max.

I agree with short outings and occassionally, find someone else to watch the little ones so your older kids can play longer.

Where is your husband? Why is your 4 year old in the baby pool? Why is your eight-year-old not totally independent there?

Anonymous wrote:I tried to do the pool thing but. When the kids were preschoolers I would take them every afternoon then go home and cry while fixing dinner.
Then I really wanted to live swim team because when I was a kid it was so casual. And I was a good swimmer. But swim team volunteering in the hot sun. Waiting around all morning. Getting hot and bored. Thankfully the kids got tired of it also. Now we rent out our membership.

Why would you go home and cry?

Sometimes I go with my husband and one of us will leave earlier with whatever kid/s is ready to leave earlier than others.

I tried to do the pool thing but. When the kids were preschoolers I would take them every afternoon then go home and cry while fixing dinner.
Then I really wanted to live swim team because when I was a kid it was so casual. And I was a good swimmer. But swim team volunteering in the hot sun. Waiting around all morning. Getting hot and bored. Thankfully the kids got tired of it also. Now we rent out our membership.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s boring. My kids go for a bit, but it’s small town suburban folks who have nothing else to do.

I know, right? Total low class losers. Pools are so tacky! I mean on a sweltering hot day I’d much rather be out and about downtown soaking in all the culture (and that fantastic humidity!) than immersing myself in a gloriously cool pool that OTHER PEOPLE PUT THEIR BODIES IN. I mean, who does that?!?

I don't think that neighborhood pools are tacky or "low class". Pools can be a lot of fun. But hanging out at the pool day in/day out would get super boring to me. It's the all day, every day part that I've never quite understood.

Why do you want to imitate other people, OP?
Individuals are different and not everyone wants to vegetate for hours at the pool.
If you're going to envy people, try to envy ones who do something worthwhile.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s boring. My kids go for a bit, but it’s small town suburban folks who have nothing else to do.

I know, right? Total low class losers. Pools are so tacky! I mean on a sweltering hot day I’d much rather be out and about downtown soaking in all the culture (and that fantastic humidity!) than immersing myself in a gloriously cool pool that OTHER PEOPLE PUT THEIR BODIES IN. I mean, who does that?!?

I hit submit right before I vomited. Thank god I got that out!

Anonymous wrote:It’s boring. My kids go for a bit, but it’s small town suburban folks who have nothing else to do.

I know, right? Total low class losers. Pools are so tacky! I mean on a sweltering hot day I’d much rather be out and about downtown soaking in all the culture (and that fantastic humidity!) than immersing myself in a gloriously cool pool that OTHER PEOPLE PUT THEIR BODIES IN. I mean, who does that?!?

Do people think private pool memberships are worth it? Maybe that is why people stay so long... To get their moneys worth!

What is the pool like, OP? Ours has large, grassy grounds, big pool and baby pool, sandboxes, large playground area, volleyball, tetherball, grills for cooking out. You can lay a blanket down next to your picnic table with toys or a little bassinet for baby. It makes it easy to spend a lot of time there.

My brother's pool is fancier, with a really nice sprinkler area around the baby pool, but it's your basic fence-enclosed concrete pool surround. If you're not swimming, there's nothing else to do, and really little kids aren't going to just hang out by the lounge chairs all afternoon.

Where is your husband in all of this? What is he packing? Sounds like you’re doing it all yourself

I wouldn’t enjoy watching kids at the pool either.

Op, we never hung out all day at the pool, either. For us, one or two hours a few times a week was plenty.

The kids joined the swim team and we wound up spending a much bigger chunk of our time at the pool for meets, practice, socials, etc. But we were doing volunteer tasks like the snack bar, grill, timer, setting up/breaking down, etc and we were watching our kids swim so the time went faster. It was fun but a few summers of that was more than enough for all of us.